


Chips Off The Stone Gryphon

by rthstewart



Series: The Stone Gryphon [5]
Category: Chronicles of Narnia (Movies), Chronicles of Narnia - All Media Types, Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Genre: 3 Sentence Ficathon, 3 Sentence Fiction, F/M, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-16
Updated: 2014-02-15
Packaged: 2018-01-12 15:01:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 1,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1189512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rthstewart/pseuds/rthstewart
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>3 Sentence Ficathon Fills from the Chronicles of Narnia.  Thanks to Caramelsilver for hosting this fabulous exchange.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The fuzzy end of the lollipop-swearing off sax players

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Problem of Susan -- she tried to stop a train for him/without shoes/and he was so amused, amused

_For Vialethe:  Narnia, Susan, well this is easier now, I've found all the pieces that I lost in the flood/and it wasn't that much_   
_Bad beginning but bright future_

If Susan had only found her courage sooner and trusted the nagging voice that told her to believe what her heart told her, it would have not taken them so long to find Aslan, and then Caspian and the How. Now all was well and they were embarking on a wonderful new adventure; Aslan was here, the throne would be won, Narnia freed, and the Four would again heal and rebuild Narnia to her former beauty and peace.

 Susan was not sure yet how they would organize the monarchy, though if Caspian was of an eligible age, a political marriage of old Narnia and new Telmar would unite the country under a single banner; while that was a sensible solution, she would lead by example and put her faith in Aslan to guide them on the wisest course in the years ahead.

* * *

 The cheers of the freed Narnians and the roar of the Lion wink out, like a candle snuffed in a draught, and they are standing once again on a sleepy country railway platform in itchy, ill-fitting uniforms.

"Are you alright?" Peter asks.

 Susan tilts her chin, the banked fire of the Gentle Queen burns in her eyes, and she replies, "No, but I will be."

  

* * *

_Narnia, Susan + Aslan, she tried to stop a train for him/without shoes/and he was so amused, amused_

It takes 9 years, 245 days, 13 hours, Marilyn Monroe, and two cross-dressing men before Susan laughs again. If she had known beforehand that _Some Like It Hot_ featured a train ride, she would have never gone to see the picture. As she leaves the theater, make-up smeared from tears of abundant, joyous, belly-aching laughter, she sees the big golden-ginger cat sitting on a wall and, this time, she goes to greet him.

 


	2. A very gifted diplomat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For Stabrow: Lord Abnur, Edmund, and smooth-tongued diplomacy

 

Edmund had always thought it would first be with nymphs, dryads, and naiads, and bark, leaf, and water, and eventually, a soft woman, not the lean, hard gentleness of a very generous man. Or perhaps, Edmund mused as he leaned back in the silken pillows and luxuriated in the unexpected, but no less pleasing perspective Abnur posed, he should limit himself in the future to diplomats. Were all diplomats, like the one next to him in the bed, similarly gifted with so marvelous a mouth and such very clever hands?

* * *

 "I have obviously erred in believing that an oily diplomat would be a bad thing," Edmund mused as Abnur dribbled fine Galman oil down his back to massage all the places on his body that ached in the most deliciously exquisite of ways.

Abnur braced his slicked hands on Edmund's shoulders, leaned down, and gently mouthed his ear to whisper, "Do you not think honeyed-tongued diplomat a sweeter description, my King?"

 With a grunt, Edmund rolled over and pulled Abnur down and into his arms, "Why chose, my lord diplomat, when we might have a reciprocal trade agreement of Narnian honey and Galman edible oils."


	3. He likes an adventurous woman

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For Strabrow: Aravis, Lord Peridan, "He likes an adventurous woman."

The cold north is not kind to the Calormene

Sometimes, it pains so much, Peridan has to leave the Anvard court, on any flimsy excuse he can contrive. None of these other pale, doughy Northerners understand but Peridan, who has Calormene heat and sand in his veins, sees the shrinking of Aravis of Calavar all too plainly. The cold of Archenland saps the colour from vibrant Southern blooms, banks the fire of swift desert horses, and smothers Tarkheenas in a gray, leaden shroud.


	4. Foolish, fragile spine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eustace the un-dragonged

_For tiny_white_hats:  Narmia, Eustace, "I'm wasted, losing time / I'm a foolish, fragile spine / I want all that is not mine"_

 It is that telltale jut of pale rock different in colour and texture from the rock worn down around it that is always the clue that a fossil lurks within. Eustace spies it in the morning, assembles his picks, brushes, bottles of water and solvent and begins the back-breaking effort to free bone from rock. Slowly the sharp, toothy jaw emerges, then the claw-like hands and finally the delicate spine and long thin bones which once anchored the wing membrane of a pterosaur, the winged lizard of the Jurassic.

 

* * *

_For the prompt: Narnia; Eustace Scrubb; Eustace with one or more of his cousins after the Silver Chair adventure._

Even though they are just his cousins, still, Eustace has to check his impulse to bow in the presence of the Narnian Kings and call them “Your Majesties,” which doesn’t go over so well in a grimy tea shop at a Reading train station. Peter and Edmund toss their caps on to the rickety table, pull off their school ties, and Peter leans in and asks quietly, “You were called?” as Edmund whispers, eager and keen, “Did you go Narnia?” Eustace is a boy now, not a dragon, a Mouse taught him to brave, and he learned compassion from a Lion’s claws, so even though it still feels like the odd hugging an American would do, he claps his cousins' hands and says in gentle tones, “I regret to tell you, my Kings, that your friend, King Caspian, has passed into Aslan’s Country.”

 

* * *

 It used to be a lot easier, when Eustace was a dragon who looked like a boy, because then he didn’t worry about hurting anyone’s feelings, but he really wants to know and just doesn't know how to ask. Finally the High Ki… Peter says something even though Eustace can tell that it makes the High Ki… Peter sad to say it but Peter (there, he said it the first time) is so good and wise that he can be nice to his (mostly former) prat of a cousin even if it does make him sad.

 

“Yes, Eustace," the High King says in that way that King Arthur would talk if he'd been really real, "I believe you will return to Narnia for if it was otherwise, Aslan would have said so, as he told each of us in turn.”


	5. The scars you don't know about

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For Snacky and Starbrow: Peter, Caspian and stolen moments

_Starbrow:  Narnia, Peter/Caspian, the scars you don't know about  
Invisible wounds_

 

The High King's shoulder is still tender from the astonishing duel fought to free Narnia, so Caspian kisses the place very gently and admires, "You are so hardened and skilled a warrior, it is small wonder you have few scars."

"They're there, you just can't see them," Peter says. "And this time tomorrow, even the new ones earned to win your throne will be gone."

 

* * *

_For snacky Narnia, Caspian, No one ever said it would be so hard, I'm going back to the start  
Running on empty_

 

Caspian always begins alone, embraces the joy of fierce bonding with another, is filled, renewed, pours himself out with abandon, and then returns, empty as before. Their last, bruising kiss he remembers long after his High King walks through a door in the air. At the end of the World, his salty tears disappear into the sweet sea.


	6. She became an MP of course

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zombie Apocalypse explains a lot about Experiment House

Because you really need to 60 comments in[ Narnia and Zombie Apocalypse](http://rthstewart.dreamwidth.org/89310.html?thread=3073758#cmt3073758)

* * *

 

The Head of Experiment was the first to fall, so to speak. The shambling dead cornered her in the gymnasium and ate what little brains she had. She went on to represent the Ashton Under Lyne constituency and no one was the wiser.


	7. Scars on the heart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Edmund, Lucy, and the ones they left behind

  _For lotl101:  Rth!verse, gen, there are mysteries in the deeps_

Caspian notices that instead of joining them at the prow pointed eastward toward the future and Aslan's Country, Edmund has climbed the rigging to the fighting top to gaze back at the port of Narrowhaven. The King stays aloft long after the Lone Islands have sunk beneath the waves.

“He lost something from Narrowhaven a long time ago,” Lucy says, “and Edmund knew he would never find it again, but that didn’t stop him from hoping he might.”

* * *

_For pysche29:  Narnia (rthverse), any, written in the scars on our hearts psyche29  
Scars on the heart_

 

The week after VE Day, they all go to a dance hall; Jill and Eustace are jitterbugging, Peter is dancing with the prettiest blondes with the longest legs and it's a veritable bonfire of offers every time Susan takes out a cigarette.

 "Do you think we'll ever be able to love again?" Lucy asks because she aches, as Edmund does, for the spouse left behind and dead over a thousand years ago.

 "I don't know, Lu, but at least we don't stick out any more," Edmund replies, and they don't, for England after the war is a land of very young widows and widowers.

 

* * *

_For Vialethe:  Narnia, Edmund (+/any), I would trade you my empire for ashes/but I choke it back, how much I need love  
Mute and heavy bells - Rthverse_

 

He goes weeks, even months, without thinking on it all. There is work at the Middle Temple Hall, rugger on weekends, meeting his brother and sisters at a pub or for tea, and dinner at Mum’s on Sunday. Sometimes, though, he glimpses a flash of the green colour she favoured or sees the silhouette of a wide-hipped woman on the street and Edmund remembers his wife has been dead for one thousand and ten years.

 

 

* * *

 

_Morgan and Mary Russell (Pevensie) in Aslan's country with candlesticks_

 

They've been together for some unmeasurable length of time (a day? a decade?), scouring Aslan's Country for candlesticks before Morgan asks the question Mary has expected from the beginning and she's glad to assure Edmund's first (dead) wife that he and his second wife (still alive) have had a loving and happy relationship.

"Does that bother you?" Mary asks.

Morgan points at where Edmund's former Narnian guards, Merle the dim Boarhound and Jalur, the surly Tiger, are sunning together on the smooth, warm rocks and says, "It did, until I realized that Edmund understood how a second love doesn't diminish the first.”

 


End file.
